Dyon appeared in a world of darkness. The only light came from the cracked soil beneath his feet that seemed to glow a blood red. The sky had no stars, there was only the faint outline of a tower in the distance that glowed its own red color.
The air was heavy, and the sense of danger made Dyon’s hairs stand on end. The space around him was filled with what looked like the outlines of trees, but when Dyon used his aurora to inspect them, he was startled to find that they were made of charred bone rising to such a height that even with the help of his golden eyes, Dyon couldn’t see the top of. If it wasn’t for them being so thin, he would have never seen the tower.
‘what kind of world is this?…’
From his master’s memory, Dyon was fully aware that every world of legacy left behind by an expert was different. However, one thing stayed the same: each and every one was a test to find the best successor.
‘For this world to be so dark and blood thirsty… what kind of expert created it…’
Dyon immediately decided to travel atop the charred bone trees. With his eyes as an advantage in the dark, he wouldn’t need to rely on the glowing soil. He couldn’t be sure if the other geniuses had eyesight boosting treasures, so he would still need to take precautions. Also, he would have to refrain from using arrays – they were too flashy in such a dark world.
‘the best bet for now is to make it to the tower…’
RRROOOOOAAARRRRR!
Dyon froze atop a thin branch, holding his breath. A few 100 meters to Dyon’s right, he heard a horrible beast crashing in his direction.
Dyon smiled bitterly, ‘of course they wouldn’t let it be so easy…’
The charred bone trees snapped as a massive creature rushed for Dyon.
It was disgusting. Its head was too massive for its 4-meter-tall body, glowing a sickly grey color. Its body was naked and covered in pasty skin. It ran on all fours, carrying a sword that was broken in many places along its edge, giving it a sinister feel. But, what was the most shocking, was its distinctly bald human-like face.
Dyon jumped before the creature could break the tree he stood on, grabbing his sword from his back and grasping the branch of an adjacent tree.
Dyon looked down as the creature raged at him, ‘since you want to die, how about you die then?’
Dyon took no chances, slashing out with his full power.
AAAAGGGGGHHHHHH
He immediately let go of the branch, falling towards the injured creature. Dyon’s steps flashed, executing his celestial movement technique and appearing right below the neck of the creature and immediately slicing upwards.
Dyon skipped backwards watching the creature writhe on the ground, rapidly losing blood.
‘what the hell is that thing… it was only at the peak of the foundation stage, but I actually needed to use my sword to kill it… what’s going on…’
Dyon didn’t get time to think as more roars sounded around him. The ground rumbled as larger and larger creatures began running towards him.
Dyon smiled bitterly, ‘how could it be possible for me to not use arrays and do this at the same time …’
Dyon froze as a sad song began being sung by the creatures
“Darkness prevails over all
The blood seeps into the ground
The strong slay the weak and stand tall
While the unfortunate are silenced without a sound
The sage of the demon empire is supreme
Unmatched and unprecedented
Unchallenged and without flaw
Immortal and esteemed
He leaves his legacy for only those as evil as he
Only those as ruthless and heartless
Cast away your humanity for strength
Drench the soil in the blood of your enemies
Plant the seed of your life within it
Become the next sage of the demon empire “
Dyon had been about to slash and kill his next creature, but he felt something within him change. He shook his head, ‘something’s wrong…’
‘Human-like creatures? A sage and yet a demon? Cast away humanity? Blood on the soil? What the hell?’
Dyon did something that would have made sense to no one else. He immediately sprinted to the dying creature and pumped as much of his aurora and celestial will into it as he could. It was much more difficult to heal this creature than it had been to heal Eli, because its cultivation was so much higher than Eli’s.
Something magnificent began happening. Slowly, the once ugly creature became a little boy. The wound on his neck slowly closing as Dyon spent more and more to heal him.
Dyon looked incomparably angry, ‘you want me to throw away my humanity just for this piss poor amount of power? You imprison a little boy in the god forsaken darkness for so long? Then have the audacity to call yourself strong?’
The boy remained unconscious, but Dyon immediately sent him into the world within his ring before pulling Little Black out.
Looking into the little creature’s adorable black eyes, Dyon spoke, “Little Black, I need your help. We need to cleanse these people of the demonic qi that’s afflicting them. I need your celestial will.”
The truth was that Dyon had no idea how powerful Little Black was. When he first met him, he was faster than even his aurora could keep up with – an aurora that could clearly see Oliver attacking him at full speed. Yet, it seemed like the little guy was only getting stronger as time went on.
Little Black jumped out of Dyon’s arms, washing over a radius of 50meters with his celestial will.
‘wow… His Celestial Will has already evolved into a first level intent… Wait, that’s not it… It’s a level 7 will, but he’s using his bloodline and crystal will to boost it. So, crystals and body cultivation can be used like that too?’
Dyon’s Celestial will was only at the 3rd level, so it was much more efficient for Little Black to do most of the work as he placed the unconscious people into his ring.
Dyon shivered as he thought about the changes within him when he had attacked the creature. He figured out that the point of the test was to withstand demonic qi. The more you killed, the more you’d be infused with that demonic qi, then it would do you good in what Dyon assumed would be the next trials. However, something seemed off to Dyon. Not only were the creatures displaying the same symptoms as those afflicted with demonic qi overdose, the song was incomparably disgusting.
Had Dyon not felt the influx of demonic qi, he might not have put the story together. But, he breathed a sigh of relief as he was glad he hadn’t brought his friends in with him.
‘It looks like I might need to deal with the geniuses and a past expert… But, since you’ve given me this demonic qi, I might as well do you one better by understanding demonic will, right? I’ll turn your evil into something good for myself. At most you’re left as a weakened soul, how could you match up against my celestial will? If that doesn’t work… I still have one other strand of hope…’
Dyon say cross legged on the cracked soil as Little Black purified the creatures who approached him.
‘I’ve felt this before… in the Focus Academy Ponds. It’s slightly different from the death qi I felt then… But, the hatred and animosity… the will to destroy everything… the feeling is nearly the same.’
What Dyon didn’t know was that he had stumbled upon his first contact with the path of a will. The reason the death will felt in the pond and the demonic will felt here were similar is because they followed similar paths. Something Dyon wouldn’t learn about until later.
The demon qilin blood within Dyon started thrumming in excitement. Unknowingly, as Dyon was slowly comprehending demonic will, he was integrating the essence blood more and more. His body was becoming stronger and sturdier as he firmly stepped into understanding of the first level of demonic will.
Dyon grit his teeth in pain as he felt the changes in his body. It was almost as painful as his soul cultivation.
‘it seems like master made integrating the essence blood many times easier for me… it’ll only get more painful from here on…’
**
Days later, Dyon had firmly stepped into a peak first level understanding of demonic will and was already at the edge of a clearing. All that was left to do was walk the half a kilometer distance to the looming tower. But, with so many enemies, Dyon had to be careful.
‘I should risk it and use a concealment array. The initial flash might catch someone’s eye, but by the time they reach the source, I should be gone. It’s really dark, but a single spot on this red soil would be really obvious’
Little Black was taking a nap on Dyon head, oblivious to the seriousness of the situation. But, Dyon let him sleep. He had been working hard for the past few days, cleansing all of the creatures they had come up against. Dyon gently placed Little Black into his spatial ring.
Sometimes, Dyon had no choice but to fight, doing his best to infuse celestial will in his fists in order to penetrate the tough skin of the creatures. This left him tired and worn out. The skin of his fists and the bones in his arms had been broken so often now that Dyon almost felt like his whole arm had been reformed.
It would have been much easier to use his sword, but now that he knew they were people, how could he do that? But, Dyon knew that his method of dealing with this trial would only lead to problems. The demonic qi provided by the expert of this world was meant to artificially boost demonic will within a person for the duration that they were in this world. Essentially, the laws of a legacy world created by an expert were formed to their will. So, something like this was considered very mild as a possible effect.
But, what this meant was that although Dyon had used the artificial demonic qi to understand genuine demonic will, it would still leave him at a disadvantage in comparison to the other geniuses who he was sure would have taken full advantage of the creatures. In fact, Dyon wouldn’t be surprised if they had even broken past the 5th layer of demonic will. By his calculations, that would have only required dealing with a couple hundred creatures.
Although Dyon had purified numbers in the thousands, their demonic qi had dispersed. He was well aware that this would leave him at a severe disadvantage. For all he knew, only demonic will was allowed to be used within the tower.
‘This is going to be a problem…’
With a flash, Dyon disappeared within his concealment formation, sprinting towards the tower
**
A few miles away, also at the edge of the same clearing, a group of Storm family members noticed a flash.
“What was that?”
“The color was gold, it might have been that bastard Dyon…”
Their first brother started slowly walking forward, not paying attention to their words.
“Let’s follow first brother,” whispered Autumn.
They all emitted thick demonic qi. It was clear that the had killed many creatures.
“Why haven’t we found Tammy?”
“It’s possible her emblem was destroyed during an encounter… Those creatures got very strong. If it wasn’t for first brother, we would have died…”
“It doesn’t matter, she can take care of herself. At worst, she’ll just be ejected without seeing the true inheritance.”
The group of 5 moved silently towards the tower, relying on their numbers.
**
Dyon waited patiently at the large towering doors of the tower. He could go in, but he had no idea if there were any people inside. If a door opened and no one showed up, it would obviously be a dead give away.
Soon, Dyon’s patience paid off. He jumped and hung on one of the engraved patterns of the door.
“So, this is where the inheritance should be,” spoke Callidora, rearranging the straps to her split spears.
Autumn took the bow off of her back, readying an arrow.
Their first brother placed his hand on the door. His long hair flowed as he forced the door open.
Dyon’s eyes widened as he sensed danger. Immediately diving into the tower, narrowly dodging a massive ruby crystal that embedded itself into the place he was just at.
BOOM!
“That clearly hit nothing Saeclum, are you sure you’re not going senile?” Sneered Ipsum.
Saeclum frowned, “my senses are unparalleled among those at the same cultivation levels. There’s no way I made a mistake. Clearly he dodged your weak attack.”
“Weak!? You want to try it out you man-woman?!”
Saeclum was about to retort when Dyon spoke out, “*sigh*, I just got here, and people are already attacking me. Can’t you all be more civil?”
After saying this Dyon immediately used a higher-level concealment array, jumping back to give himself time while scanning the room.
The room was completely bland. It only had a single wide stair case to an equally bland door. But, everything emitted a deadly qi that could make anyone shudder. Candles were the only light in the high-ceilinged room, even decorating the chandelier.
Before Ipsum could attack again, Dyon had already disappeared and moved, watching quietly at those who had made it.
‘I don’t see Oliver or Caedlum… and Chenglei isn’t here either… But, it seems like all the God Clan affiliates are here plus a few faces I’ve never seen before. Not to mention it seems like the big sect geniuses are here too. Only 13 people including myself…’
“Come down here you coward!” boomed Ace.
Dyon deflected his voice using his wind will, “you blow with that mouth of yours too much Ace… people would never think that you were a dignified member of the God Clans.”
BOOM!
A spear stuck in the wall where Dyon had projected his voice, causing him to chuckle, “dumbass.”
Ace trembled in anger. But, before he could say anything else, a booming voice filled the room. It sounded like metal was scraping against each other and filled with incomparable blood lust.
“This is what my signal brought me? A bunch on inconsequential weak children. This is the best the martial world has to offer in the younger generation? How pathetic.”
An aura swept the area, completing destroying Dyon’s concealment array and causing his face to pale. A cold snort filled the room almost as if to make fun of Dyon for trying to conceal himself in his presence.
Dyon smiled bitterly, but he breathed a sigh of relief as he noticed that the concealment he had put on the strength of his soul stayed.
A dozen pairs of eyes bore into Dyon, but they didn’t dare move for fear of disrespecting the expert.
An illusory figure appeared at the top of the stairs. His face was covered in a black hood. You couldn’t make out the outline of his body, but the form of his aura gave him a presence that couldn’t be compared.
The figure quietly scanned the room before his eyes fell on Dyon, “Why do you have no demonic qi within you?”
Dyon expecting this, answered respectfully, “Senior put so much effort into your legacy world, so I thought it would be a shame if I lost all of after I left. So, I decided to learn real demonic will instead of the fake kind my supposed competitors learned.”
Although Dyon couldn’t see it, the expert started in surprise, ‘this world has only been opened for a few days, but he learned demonic will already?’
Ace couldn’t hold it in anymore, “IMPOSSIBLE! Just admit you couldn’t kill a single one of the creatures with your weak cultivation level! Demonic will is among the most unattainable among the wills along with celestial, time and a few others, how could you learn it in a few days?! And you want to say that I’m the one who blows nonsense!”
Although the senior didn’t like his conversations interrupted, he had to agree.
Dyon didn’t reply, instead letting a blood thirsty aura emit from his body, “how about you shut your mouth?”
Ace stumbled, “you… you…”
“HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, I don’t care whether you had already known demonic will before coming here and are lying to me. The fact you know it at such a young age is enough for you to be considered a genius in any era. Good, Good. Maybe this hasn’t all been in vein.
Now, the rest of you release your artificial wills. It will allow me to gauge the amount of creatures you killed.”
A slight smile appeared on Dyon’s face. He noticed two things. For one, the senior didn’t have full observational abilities even over his world. Secondly, he wasn’t even able to tell that Dyon had demonic will without him releasing it. Thirdly, he needed the rest to release their wills voluntarily for him to see their levels.
‘His soul is weakened enough to not be able to do what an expert should clearly be able to do… He must have weakened to saint level if I give him every possible advantage. Saint level is still much too much for me to handle though… but… celestial will might give me an advantage here’
As the figures inside the tower released their wills, the figure’s eyes landed on Elof, Ace, the tall blond young man from the Storm family, Niveus, and a boy with red hair that seemed to be from the flame sword sect.
“You’ve each surpassed the 6<super>th</super> level of demonic will. Technically, only you 5 would have passed to enter this second level. But, I’ll allow the child over there to enter as well as he’s already comprehended the true demonic will.”
The figure turned around, expecting them to follow.
Dyon frowned, ‘6th level?’ He had expected the 5th would be possible. But, them surpassing the 6th meant they were at the very least 7th. That was well out of Dyon’s expectations.
‘They’re strong… But, they should have had help. At the very least the tall blond guy had help.’
As they entered the door a faint voice rang out, “other legacy worlds have smaller treasures for those who aren’t worthy of the main challenge… unfortunately, I can’t bother with losers…”
The other geniuses could only clutch their fists in anger. They were hoping to teach Dyon a lesson, but it seemed they wouldn’t get a chance.
The words of the figure made Dyon pause, ‘This…’. Dyon immediately imperceptibly sent out of a string of first level time will.
The result made Dyon pale, ‘this is not good…’
**
Outside the legacy world, the elders and students were starting to worry.
“It’s been almost a week since they’ve been inside. Usually with the time manipulation of legacy worlds, only an hour would have passed inside before the students were teleported out thanks to the treasure. Why haven’t they come out yet?”
“There shouldn’t be too much to worry about. This world is much more powerful than all of the other ones, remember? So, it’s a good possibility that it might take years before it collapses and teleports them out. Years inside could easily translate to days here. They should come out soon.”
“If that’s the case, this is good. That means we’ve invested well this time.”
“Ai, but, we need to stay alert. As soon as Dyon comes out, we need to kill him. With the cultivation of those behind us, we can say he was injured inside the world and was teleported out dead.”
“Yes. The ones inside are mostly his enemies. Even if they knew otherwise, they wouldn’t refute us.”
“This is what he deserves for not understanding how high the heavens are. No matter how much of a genius you are, a dead genius is no genius at all.”
A sinister light flashed in the eyes of the elders.
What they didn’t know, is that experts were already gathering. People of the Kami God Clan, Ragnor God Clan, Storm family, and the Pakal clan were already on the scene. They were all waiting for the perfect time to strike.
For the Ragnor Clan, they knew that if they attacked the Storm Family geniuses once they exited, it would force the Storm family out of hiding. The Pakal Clan needed this opportunity as well to recover their technique. The Kami God Clan was only here for one purpose: to kill Dyon.
Madeleine stood in the sky near her master, with a worried look on her face. Her master had told her that there were many experts gathered, and although she knew that this was mostly a conflict between the Ragnor, Storm and Pakal Clans, she knew they wouldn’t let Dyon go since he not only embarrassed the Ragnor family, he was the reason why the Storm clan was in any danger.
“Master, are we really not going to help him?” Madeleine asked for what seemed like the millionth time.
“We can’t. Dyon is aware of this too. While they won’t hurt you since you are now our first in line genius. It would be a different matter if we interfered in their business.”
“But, master, he is my fiancé. Isn’t the Clan already implicated? Why can’t we help him then?” This was a new argument Madeleine had come up with, hoping it would work.
Her master sighed, “There’s a difference between being affiliated and directly helping him. To these clans, a fiancé is something fleeting. In fact, the Ragnor Clan will probably make many attempts to court you while Dyon isn’t with you. To them… all they need to do is kill him and you will no longer have a fiancé. They have no concept of how deep your feelings are. They believe that if they kill him, with how long the lives of martial artists are, you’ll eventually get over it.”
Madeleine trembled.
“However, if the Sapientia Clan acts to protect him, it adds a different layer to the situation. It means we’ve acknowledged him as your partner. It then becomes the Sapientia God Clan versus the Kami God Clan, the so-called Storm Clan, and the Ragnor God Clan. No matter how powerful we are, it’s impossible to deal with all of these existences if we don’t ask for the help of the other Sapientia Main Branches. Also, we’d be offending the big sects as well. Although they are ants compared to us, they can easily compare to a branch family of a God Clan. It’s simply too much.”
Madeleine didn’t let her tears fall as she clenched her fists. She had resolved herself to believe in Dyon. She now understood that there was no convincing her master to act and she also knew that her acting would only further burden Dyon.
‘Dyon… you must survive.’